What Is a Custom App Address and How to Create It?

A custom app address is used for hosting your mobile web application under a different subdomain from your website. Usual examples are app.yourdomainname.com or m.yourdomainname.com, but you can use other names if you like.

On the Appticles.com platform, all mobile web applications require a custom app address to complete setup, unless you have connected your WordPress website with an API Key, allowing your mobile app and website to operate under the same domain name. A custom subdomain can still be used for connected WordPress websites, but it is no longer mandatory.

The Appticles.com dashboard will notify you if a custom app address is required, by displaying a warning under the top bar of your application’s control panel:

There are two steps that you must go through in order to create a custom subdomain or app address.

1) Adding the address in your application settings

The subdomain can be added:

a) From the Quick Setup page for creating an application (“App address” field).

Please note that your setup page will look different if you registered coming from the WordPress Mobile Pack plugin. In this case, you can add the subdomain from the application’s Settings page (option b).

The first step will only create the app address on the Appticles servers, so far it’s not connected to the “outside world”.

2) Setting up a CNAME record

Each domain name has an associated “map” of all its subdomains and associated IPs, called DNS (Domain Name System) zone. A more technical definition of the DNS is as follows:

The domain name system (DNS) is the way that Internet domain names are located and translated into Internet Protocol addresses. A domain name is a meaningful and easy-to-remember “handle” for an Internet address.

The DNS of your domain doesn’t do anything by itself, it’s just a collection of addresses like “yourdomainname.com” , “app.yourdomainname.com” or “mail.yourdomainname.com”, each of them associated with the servers that perform the actual tasks of hosting your website files, managing email or providing other services.

By adding a CNAME in your DNS records, you are configuring an address like “app.yourdomainname.com” to go to the Appticles servers. This step is necessary to “tell the outside world” that the app(or m) subdomain is located at a different IP address compared to the main website.

How to edit your DNS file

The DNS file is edited from the account you used to purchase your domain name. We have wrote step-by-step guidelines about how to complete this step for the top five hosting companies – GoDaddy, HostGator,BlueHost, DreamHost and 1AND1.

In case you are using a different hosting company, please note that the record added in the DNS file must use the following configuration:

Host Record: app (or any other subdomain that you have chosen)

TTL: 14400

Type: CNAME

Points to: apps1.webcrumbz.net

If this is too technical for you, just know that this is a 30 seconds task for your hosting company, so you might as well just open a support ticket there. If you’re still having problems, get in touch with us and we’ll be happy to assist you.

Please note that the propagation of the CNAME record will not be done immediately. This means it will take at least a few hours before the custom app address will function properly and you will be able to access it in the browser. (Read more about DNS propagation)

If 24 hours have passed and the subdomain is still not working properly, it’s most likely that the CNAME record wasn’t correctly set up and it’s time to look at the Troubleshooting guide below.

Troubleshooting – Common Subdomain Problems

The Appticles.com dashboard will display warnings or error messages for custom app addresses that weren’t yet verified or are not behaving properly.

Here are a few examples of messages that you will see on the application’s Settings page (Manage > Settings > Custom App Address section) or when visiting the subdomain in a browser.

Unverified Subdomain

This means that your custom app address wasn’t yet verified by the Appticles platform. It’s just a warning that will disappear if the CNAME record is correct or will be replaced by a “Your Subdomain is Invalid” error message. If you’re still seeing this message after 24 hours, please contact the support team.

Your Subdomain is Invalid

This is an error message that shows if your subdomain answered with a different IP address (not belonging to one of the Appticles servers) or didn’t answer at all. There is most likely an issue with the second step of the setup process. To double check the CNAME settings, open the Command Prompt on Windows or Macand enter the following command:

If the CNAME record is correct, the ping request should answer with the 5.153.54.20 IP address (apps1.webcrumbz.net).

Your CNAME is valid, but the subdomain doesn’t exist on the Appticles servers

When you open your custom app address in a browser, you might stumble across the following message:

If you’re seeing this page, this subdomain was incorrectly set up. The CNAME is correctly redirecting here, but the mobile web application doesn’t have an associated subdomain.

If you’re the owner of this subdomain, please go to your application’s admin panel and add the subdomain in there as well. If you need help, please contact support.

This means that the subdomain was not configured from the Appticles.com dashboard and you need to go through the first step of the setup process.